祭 (jì) · to offer sacrifices

Meanings

1 to offer sacrifices
2 to worship; to pay respects to the dead

Characters

祭

jì

to sacrifice; to worship

Examples

HSK 7-9

每年清明节我们都去祭祖。

Měinián Qīngmíngjié wǒmen dōu qù jì zǔ.

Every year during Qingming Festival we go to pay respects to our ancestors.

HSK 7-9

他在墓前祭父亲。

Tā zài mù qián jì fùqīn.

He paid respects to his father at the grave.

Tips

culture

祭 is central to Chinese ancestral worship. Offerings of food, incense, and paper money are placed before graves or ancestral tablets, as in 祭祖 (to make offerings to one's ancestors).

register

Read as Zhài, the character is also a rare Chinese surname. For the sacrifice and worship senses it is always read jì.

Components

radical

示 shì

altar; reveal (radical)

Bottom altar radical (Kangxi #113), a stone altar table with hanging streamers, used for any ritual or divine matter. Indexes 祭 alongside 神 (deity), 礼 (ritual), 祝 (pray), 福 (blessing), 祖 (ancestor). The whole character reads: a hand placing meat on the altar, hence sacrifice, offering, worship of ancestors.

semantic

⺼ ròu

flesh; meat (semantic)

Top-left flesh radical, visually like 月 but historically the contracted 肉. Here it depicts the slab of meat offered to the ancestors. The original form of 祭 showed exactly this: a piece of dripping meat held by a hand, placed on the altar below. Same component in 肝 (liver), 胖 (plump), 脏 (organ).

semantic

又 yòu

right hand (semantic)

Top-right hand component, a stylised right hand. Pictures the priest's hand holding the meat slab and laying it on the altar 示. Together they form the canonical altar-offering scene. Same hand in 取 (take), 友 (friend), 受 (receive).